Growing up Untouchable in India: A Dalit Autobiography

by Vasant Moon, Gail Omvedt, Eleanor Zelliot

Overview

'In this English translation, Moon's story is usefully framed by apparatus necessary to bring its message to even those taking their first look at South Asian culture...The result is an easy to digest short-course on what it means to be a Dalit, in the words of one notable Dalit.'-Journal of Asian Studies

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780585394060
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	07/15/2002
Series:	Asian Voices
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Vasant Moon is a retired civil servant and Dalit activist. He is the editor of 17 volumes of Dr. AmbedkarOs writings and speeches in English. Gail Omvedt is a freelance writer and frequent visiting professor of sociology. Eleanor Zelliot is Laird Bell Professor of History emerita at Carleton College.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Neighborhood
Chapter 2 Fearless
Chapter 3 Callousness and Clouds
Chapter 4 The Heat and Rain of Childhood
Chapter 5 Dev Master's Curse Falls
Chapter 6 Religious Hymns
Chapter 7 Shooting Star
Chapter 8 Chickpeas and Parched Rice
Chapter 9 The Unconquered
Chapter 10 Parade of Lions and Tigers
Chapter 11 Foreshadowing
Chapter 12 Holy Victory
Chapter 13 Robust and Rollicking
Chapter 14 Sports and Study
Chapter 15 Pigeons and Politics
Chapter 16 Climax
Chapter 17 Wrath
Chapter 18 Cultural Transformation
Chapter 19 An Unspoiled Picture
Chapter 20 The Welfare of the World
Chapter 21 For What? For Books!
Chapter 22 I Begin to Write
Chapter 23 The End of Umar Khayam
Chapter 24 Rising Moon
Chapter 25 The Vows of Religion
Chapter 26 Falling Star
Chapter 27 Tying the Knot
Chapter 28 The Spinning Top
Chapter 29 Summing Up

Editorial Reviews

This book puts living flesh on the bones of recent Indian social historiography.
—Harvard University

Christopher Queen

Moon is a Dalit (formerly known as untouchable) activist and editor of the speeches and writings of the late Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, a Dalit and the architect of the Indian constitution. The emergence of Dalit literature is an important development in the Indian literary scene, and Omvedt's translation of Moon's autobiography makes this work accessible to the Western reader. Despite poverty and hunger, Moon's account of his boyhood in the Mahar "Vasti," or neighborhood, of Nagpur is idyllic. Moon portrays the solidarity among the Ambedkar loyalists of this urban slum as well as a vast array of characters who are athletic, feisty, and resourceful activists. Omvedt's translation is true to the original Marathi, but the use of a very limited English vocabulary makes her writing a stylistic curiosity. This reservation aside, the book is recommended for comparative literature and Indian collections in academic and large public libraries.--Ravi Shenoy, Naperville P.L., IL Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

There are few such autobiographies, especially in English, which makes Moon's memories of sleeping on village roads side by side with neighbors, of his mother waking at 4:30 a.m. to work in the mill and of the kindness of certain teachers particularly valuable....

|Los Angeles Times

A powerful personal and collective memory of caste oppression and struggle in India from the 1930s to the 1950s.. .. Both as a historical and as a literary document, there is much to consider in this thought provoking and intensely moving memoir.

Race & Class - Shalini Ramachandran

His [Moon's] autobiography, written in his native Marathi and translated into English, vividly describes life in an urban Indian slum and gives a glimpse of the internal politics that accompanied the independence movement.

Pacific Reader

Offer(s) an accessible glimpse of the life and times of one Dalit and the people he grew up with.

Journal of Asian Studies

This book is a welcome first step towards increasing our understanding of a much-neglected aspect of Indian life.

Times Literary Supplement

Omvedt's translation is true to the original Marathi.--Ravi Shenoy "Library Journal "

A powerful personal and collective memory of caste oppression and struggle in India from the 1930s to the 1950s. . . . Both as a historical and as a literary document, there is much to consider in this thought provoking and intensely moving memoir.--Shalini Ramachandran "Race & Class "

Vasant Moon's powerful memoir of youth in the slums of central India is by turns disturbing, entertaining, engrossing, and deeply inspiring. Moving beneath Moon's sharply etched tale of material deprivation, caste conflict, and neighborhood politics is the inexorable rise of Dalit (Untouchable) militancy and spirituality--illuminated by the towering figure of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, champion of the poor and leader of the Buddhist revival in India. This book puts living flesh on the bones of recent Indian social historiography.--Christopher Queen, Harvard University

From the Publisher

There are few such autobiographies, especially in English, which makes Moon's memories of sleeping on village roads side by side with neighbors, of his mother waking at 4:30 a.m. to work in the mill and of the kindness of certain teachers particularly valuable.

Los Angeles Times

This book is a welcome first step towards increasing our understanding of a much-neglected aspect of Indian life.

Times Literary Supplement (UK)

Offer(s) an accessible glimpse of the life and times of one Dalit and the people he grew up with.

Journal Of Asian Studies

A powerful personal and collective memory of caste oppression and struggle in India from the 1930s to the 1950s. . . . Both as a historical and as a literary document, there is much to consider in this thought provoking and intensely moving memoir.
— Shalini Ramachandran

Race and Class